Improvement in sheep-chairs



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ORLANDO BARKER AND GEO. E. BLAKELEE, OF HUNTINGTON, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHEEP-CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 49,067, dated August 1, 1865.

To' all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ORLANDO BARKER and GEO. E. BLAKELEE, 'of Huntington, Lorain county, Ohio,have invented a new and useful chair for the purpose of holding sheep in a convenient position to cut and trim their feet, and also to tag them. We hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the figures ot reference marked thereon, in which- Figure l represents the bottom of the chair and shows the slides by which the chair is made wider. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of chair.

The nature of our invention consists in making a simple chair of boards, provided withlegs of the proper length to be convenient to work at without tiring or fatiguing the operator.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

To construct a full-sized chair we take a board one inch thick, four feet long, six inches wide at the narrow end, and eight inches broad at the lower or broad end. Fifteen inches from the wide end'we cnt this board into two pieces, on an angle ot' about forty-tive degrees, or more commonly called a ruiter-cut. The wide end of the short piece is then scalloped,

turned over, and againjoined to the long piece by nails or screws, forming the bed ofthe chair. Across the top oi' this bed, and eight inches from each end, we place a piece of board one inch and a halt' thick, six inches broad, and rounded ott-the lower one for the hips or rump of the sheep to rest against or upon, the upper one for the neck ofthe sheep. Firmlyattached to one edge of this bottom or b'ed piece is a side board, about eight inches broad at the widest place, and shaped at the lower edge to coliform to the bottomrboa-rd, and rounded off at each end. The other side of the chair is the same shape, and made adjustable to the difterent sizes of sheep by two sliding bars rmly attached to the lower edge of this board, and running under the bottom by means ot' iron angles, which bars are provided with notches to work in slideways,- which slideways are each provided with an iron pin, set in a suitable manner to receive and hold the slides by the aforesaid notches as the side board is drawn out and in. This side may be nailed firmly to the bottom board, like its counterpart, which is just as convenient for a tlock of sheep, which are of nearly the same size.

Into thelower side ofthe broad end we put two strong` legs about twenty inches long, running straight down, and to the narrow end we put in two legs about thirty inches long, and running off at an angle to make them bracing a little.

The narrow end of the chair should be about eight inches higher than the broad end, so that when a sheep has been served he can easily be set upon his feet by taking hold of this-end and lifting it straight up until the sheep comes onto his feet without injury.

It is hardly necessary to say a word about its utility, as that is patent to all experienced sheep-owners. lt is very convenient to tag sheep or trim their feet, which has to be done several times during the season. The sheep is placed in the chair on his back in so easy and natural a position that he submits Without a struggle, and the position puts his feet in just the attitude to be most convenient for trimming.

It is ot' great importance that sheep should be handled with care at all times, but especially so in the spring of the year, when ewes are with lamb, and the. plan of holding them down upon the barn-Hoor by the knee While trimming their feet is Very liable to injure them. Our chair prevents any danger of this kind. lts simplicity of construction places it within the reach ot' every farmer.

We claim- The above-described sheep-chair, constructed as and for the purposes herein set forth.

ORLANDO BARKER. GEO. E. BLAKELEE.

Witnesses:

M. W. Holm, M. W. BLAKELEE. 

